Baby deer rescued from lake

Russell Kiser is pictured with the deer his family helped save from Moss Lake. Justin Harrelson pulled the deer out if the water. Britt Talbert Harrelson, Leah Smith Kiser and Kaeden Smith also helped. (Photo submitted by Leah Smith)

By Molly Phipps

Published: Monday, July 22, 2013 at 05:27 PM.

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Russell Kiser and his family had no idea they’d be part of a rescue while fishing on
Moss
Lake
.

“We were just out there doing some fishing last Sunday afternoon. It was myself, my wife and my son, and we had two friends with us. It was getting late. Out in the middle where everybody was riding jet skis and stuff, the water was really rough,” Kiser said. “I saw something out there in the lake. It was just swimming in circles.”

Kiser said it was a baby deer.

“It was out on the main channel,” he said. “There’s a red barn and straight across from that, there’s an island. And that’s like the biggest part of
Moss
Lake
. I don’t know how he got out that far.”

‘It took us three tries’

Carefully, the Kisers maneuvered their boat to the baby deer.

“The waves were so high, I don’t guess he could see land,” Kiser said. “It took us three tries to get beside him before we got close enough to him. We didn’t want to hurt him or scare him any more than he was.”

Russell Kiser and his family had no idea they’d be part of a rescue while fishing on MossLake.

“We were just out there doing some fishing last Sunday afternoon. It was myself, my wife and my son, and we had two friends with us. It was getting late. Out in the middle where everybody was riding jet skis and stuff, the water was really rough,” Kiser said. “I saw something out there in the lake. It was just swimming in circles.”

Kiser said it was a baby deer.

“It was out on the main channel,” he said. “There’s a red barn and straight across from that, there’s an island. And that’s like the biggest part of MossLake. I don’t know how he got out that far.”

‘It took us three tries’

Carefully, the Kisers maneuvered their boat to the baby deer.

“The waves were so high, I don’t guess he could see land,” Kiser said. “It took us three tries to get beside him before we got close enough to him. We didn’t want to hurt him or scare him any more than he was.”

When they reached him, he was out of breath.

“He was so exhausted when we got him in the boat, gasping for breath,” Kiser said. “That’s when we saw his mom step out from the bank. He got a little bit of strength back then. He started hollering.”

Safe with its mother

In a matter of minutes, they reached the bank and Kiser placed the baby deer down. It stood up to go to its mom.

“After we got the deer on the bank, the mama acted like she wanted us to leave,” he said. “So we just pulled to the next cove.”

Kiser said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“You don’t come into contact with a baby deer like that, or a full grown deer,” he said. “It was very intense, very neat.”

He said the bank was high where the mother was.

“The only thing we could figure out is it was a real high bank where his mom was. And maybe he fell in and couldn’t figure out how to get back up,” said Kiser. “There were boats flying left and right and they didn’t see him. He was lucky he didn’t get hit first. We came along at just the right time.”

Reach Molly Phipps at 704-669-3339, at mphipps@shelbystar.com or on Twitter @MollyAPhipps.